S
T
Smart Shop
in a One-Car Garage
Space-saving solutions for a small work area
B Y M A T T H E W
T
ales of bad shops are a woodworker’s war stories. After liv-
ing in five houses in seven years, I have plenty of them to
tell: ladders under closeted trapdoors that descended into
windowless basements, ceilings that were only an inch taller than
I am when I stand barefoot, abandoned radiators, wasp nests,
snow, water—good Lord, the water—and a hole in the middle of
one shop floor (about 2 ft. in diameter and 2 ft. deep) just behind
the infeed side of my tablesaw. Oh, yes, I could tell you some sto-
ries. But that’s not my point. My point is that when I moved into a
rented house with a one-car garage—9 ft. wide and 18 ft. long—
most of my coworkers wondered how
I would fit a shop into such a tight
space. But after the shops I’ve endured,
I felt like I’d finally arrived.
I spent a lot of time planning to con-
dense workspaces and to make sure
that machines work efficiently with one
another, and I found quick and simple
solutions for storage. I think I’ve turned
the 160-sq.-ft. garage into a smoothly
running shop; it’s just the kind of place
where I want to spend a Saturday or un-
wind after a day at the office. What’s
more, when I move, the shop can go
with me; everything simply lifts off the
walls or rolls out the doors.
A garage transformed
A few months ago, the garage my shop
was to be housed in had bare stud walls and one electrical outlet,
stored a motorcycle and was littered with enough garden tools to
dig a new sea. Luckily, my roommate, who owns the house, was
amenable to revamping the space, provided that I pitch in with
some of the work. He wanted insulated walls, electricity and wide
barn doors on the front—or at least as wide as possible on a 9-ft.
44 FINE WOODWORKING
T E A G U E
run of wall. Renovating the garage would be a hefty task, and I had
to do it fast. I had promised my future in-laws a dining set, and if
they had to wait much longer, I feared they would take their
daughter back.
While I desperately needed a good workspace, I had to remem-
ber that I only rent the house. I didn’t want my shelving and work-
stations to be built in. I wanted to be able to lift them off the walls
and move them out when I find and buy Connecticut’s affordable
house. And I didn’t want to sink a fortune into cabinets—it’s a
workshop, after all, and what comes out of the shop is far more im-
portant than what goes in. I needed a
shop that was well thought out and en-
gineered for a smooth workflow, but
not one that was overbuilt. I forgot
about all of the garbage that littered the
little garage, and started planning on a
clean sheet of paper.
Mapping out the territory
Fitting the major machines—tablesaw,
jointer, planer, bandsaw, router table,
drill press and chopsaw—into a room
designed to hold a car (a tiny 1920s
Model A, at that) is about as difficult as it
sounds. I started on graph paper with
paper cutouts of all of my tools. Every-
thing had to be drawn to scale because
half a foot in such a tight spot could
make or break the shop. As in most
shops, large stationary tools are key, but they also demand the
most space, so the tablesaw seemed a good place to start.
As soon as I put pencil to paper, I saw that I was going to have to
forgo my wide 52-in. Biesemeyer fence—there simply wasn’t
room. I downgraded to a shorter fence by changing out the rails,
which at this point only meant lopping off the end of my tablesaw
Photos: Michael Pekovich
 WINTER 2002/2003

T H I N K I N G B I G I N A S M A L L S PAC E Workbench height Clamp rack is

Thoughtful layout makes this small shop seem bigger. All of the allows it to serve located behind
Worktable with as tablesaw- the worktable.
major machines are stored and fully functional in only 160 sq. ft. drawers is the outfeed support.
same height as
the workbench.
Essential hand
Open storage tools are within
units are hung Modular
construction easy reach above
high on the walls the workbench.
and outfitted means the
with adjustable chopsaw station
dividers. is adjustable
should equipment Jigs and
change. fixtures are
stored close to
Drill press and the tablesaw.
grinder are stored
below the chopsaw
station but are
easily removed and
clamped to the work
surface.

Tablesaw outfeed
table doubles as
storage unit for
portable power tools.

Router table is
attached to the
left side of the
tablesaw.

Small cutoffs are tucked

below the switch-breaker
box.

Mobile bases allow Planer is stored under Bandsaw can be

large tools to be the tablesaw and out rolled into open areas
relocated easily. of the way. to handle large stock.

Drawings: Brian Jensen TOOLS & SHOPS 2002 45


A well-thought-out corner of the shop. The chopsaw station not only
provides good outfeed support for the saw, but it also stores the grinder
and the drill press and houses two banks of drawers.
cutout with scissors. I soon saw that large tools had to be mobile;
if I left open floor space, any tool could be pulled out easily and
put to use. There still were a few wrinkles—like where my router
table would go and how I could consolidate my grinder, chopsaw
and drill press into one smooth-running workstation—but after a
little thinking and shopping around, I solved those problems, too.
I also kept an eye on the horizontal arrangement of tools and
workstations, making sure that the outfeed from certain tools—like
my tablesaw and jointer—wouldn’t be hindered by workbenches
or tabletops. After a few more hours of moving around the cutouts
and positioning the major machines, I started thinking about stor-
age space and drawing quick sketches of the outfeed situation. In
the end, I came up with an arrangement that housed the major
tools in just about 80 sq. ft—about half the square footage of the
entire space. It was time to run electricity and build the walls.
After cleaning the garage of all its old tools and odds and ends,
my roommate and I hired an electrician pal to wire the space. We
positioned all of the outlets 44 in. up from the floor—just above
46 FINE WOODWORKING
M U LT I P U R P O S E C H O P S AW S TAT I O N
Drawers are like clamps—you can never have enough. Metal draw-
ers slide in sawkerfs in the carcase. Hardware and fasteners are stored
in watchmaker’s cases. Drawers for cutting tools are padded.
A portable work-
station. The drill
press and grinder
are both stored
below the chop-
saw but are easily
removed and
clamped to the
work surface.
bench height—and ran them every 4 ft. We also dropped in four 220-
volt outlets conveniently located to reach the beefier machines.
We insulated the walls and hung T-111 siding, which is stronger
than drywall and does a better job of holding tool cabinets. The
light color of the siding opened up the space, and the rough wood
surfaces gave the shop a warm, inviting feel. We then built and hung
the barn doors, which took only a weekend to accomplish.
The existing wood floor in the garage would have been nice
on the feet, but it was too old and uneven to allow my heavy
mobile tools to move easily. We laid down plywood flooring over
the existing wood floor and covered it with a few coats of water-
based polyurethane.
I have to admit I was shocked that everything worked just as it
had on paper. Now I was ready to roll in the machines.
Large tools rest on mobile bases
My tablesaw sits approximately 4 ft. inside the barn doors, leav-
ing enough space on the left side of the saw for my jointer to
Tops are A single workstation supports the chopsaw, but it also stores the drill
made from press and grinder underneath. Sized to fit the tools he owns, Teague’s
1-in.-thick
workstation is 241⁄2 in. deep by 60 in. wide by 351⁄2 in. high.
MDF.

Carcases are simply

butt-joined, glued and
screwed.

Other power
tools are stored Premade
in a single box drawers
behind the are a fast,
drawer box. affordable
Center carcase is sized storage
Sawkerfs ( 1⁄4 in. deep, so that the top of the solution.
spaced 1 1⁄4 in. apart) chopsaw is level with
accept either 1-in. or Base is made of the tops of the drawer
2-in. drawers. Douglas fir 2x6s. boxes.

Workstation assembles easily

1 2 3 4
Set the boxes in place. The main Keep the carcases flush and se- Exploit every inch. Storage box- Use a thick top. The 1-in.-thick
carcase is centered on the base cure. Clamps hold the drawer box es are set behind the drawer MDF is coated with a few washcoats
and screwed into place. in place while it is screwed to both boxes and screwed in place. of shellac and will stand up to
the base and the center carcase. heavy work.

TOOLS & SHOPS 2002 47

stand against the opposite wall. And be-
cause I put the jointer on a mobile base,
I can move it around if I need to joint es-
pecially long boards. My small lunch-
box planer, which always has worked
wonderfully for me, was relegated to
the cubbyhole below the right-hand
side of my tablesaw. It saves floor space,
but because the planer is light and kept
on a shopmade mobile base, its useful-
ness is not limited.
One big hiccup always had been my
router table. It made sense to save space
by housing the router table in the table-
saw, but most models mount on the
right side of the saw—a setup I’d never
been happy with. And with the right
side of the saw against the wall, where it
clearly had to go, I couldn’t stand in
front of the fence when routing—doing
otherwise always had seemed unsafe.
Still, a stand-alone router table was go-
ing to take up more room than I had to
spare. Browsing through catalogs and A place for everything. Space above the rafters is
the Internet, I found what is the only used for storing—and even drying—lumber.
left-mounted router table that I know of;
it’s made by Bench Dog (800-786-8902; www.benchdog.com). Al-
though my choice meant losing 3 in. between the tablesaw and the
jointer, I still had plenty of working space. Plus, I was able to get ready-made drawers and leaves a few cubbyholes in back to store
rid of my free-standing router table altogether.
The left-mounted router table works great now, but because my
tablesaw table is larger than average—even for a cabinet saw—I
had to redrill a few holes in the top of
the tablesaw and install spacer blocks to
make the router table fit. But the after-
noon’s work has proven well worth it.
Not only does the table save space, but
it also works better than any free-stand-
ing router table I’ve ever had. I dropped
in a router lift (FWW #155, pp. 56-61) to
make it even more user friendly. Now I
can change router bits topside with a
quick-action wrench, saving both time
and hassle.
As planned, the bandsaw rolled into
the front corner of my shop, just behind
the tablesaw. It is close enough to the
doors that I am able to roll it out and use
the open doorway as outfeed space as
needed. But this is only in a pinch. For
most of my woodworking—chairs,
small tables and chests of drawers—
the bandsaw has plenty of room just
where it is.
This arrangement took care of the ma-
jor stationary tools, and I still had two
long walls for the chopsaw station and
the workbench. I ended up designing
and building a modular chopsaw station that houses not only my
chopsaw but also my drill press and grinder. It holds a bank of
routers and such.
Using the tablesaw’s outfeed table as storage for power tools
gives me plenty of open floor space, while exposed rafters work

H AV E W H E E L S , W I L L T R AV E L

Buy a mobile base. Storing the bandsaw Or make one yourself. Teague’s planer base is
and jointer on mobile bases allows Teague nothing more than an MDF box with locking cast-
to pull them out into the open when he has ers screwed to the bottom, and it includes
to handle especially long stock. shelves as well.

48 FINE WOODWORKING
well as lumber racks. Once the major machines were in place, the
rest of the shop almost designed itself.
Condensed work areas
One key to working in a small shop is to condense your work-
spaces for both economy and ease. I wound up building units out
of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) to handle tablesaw outfeed,
as well as my chopsaw, grinder and drill press.
While I would have loved a nice, long tablesaw-outfeed table
that could handle large sheet goods, there was hardly room. When
working with plywood or MDF, I cut the sheets to rough size with
a circular saw in my driveway, then trim them at the tablesaw.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, the 2-ft.-wide outfeed table pro-
vides all of the support I need for the tablesaw. And if I’m cutting
large sheet goods, the workbench is positioned to serve as outfeed
support. But I had to get more out of the outfeed table than just
outfeed support—I needed a place to store handheld power tools
and to serve as another work surface for assembly and other tasks.
The outfeed table is a heavy setup, but I needed the heft to make
it sturdy. I assembled the table with knockdown fasteners so that
the whole workstation could be disassembled for easy transport
when I move. I installed a 1-in.-thick MDF top and covered it with
a few coats of shellac—not only does the shellac provide a mois-
ture barrier, but it also makes the MDF less prone to scratches.
Four 4-in. lag bolts serve as levelers, making it easy to bring the
outfeed table flush to the tablesaw.
It would have been nice to have a sliding compound-miter saw,
a floor-standing drill press and a permanent grinding station that
was always ready to go, but working in a small shop meant I had
to accept some sacrifices. And because I was working on a bud-
get, I couldn’t upgrade all of my tools—not to mention that my
tools had always worked well for me.
After a bit of head scratching, I devised a way to combine my
chopsaw, drill press and grinder into one workstation that takes up
only a small footprint and works smoothly. I didn’t work out all of
the dimensions ahead of time; I just built it box by box, sized to fit
each tool. Almost accidentally, it worked out better than I’d hoped.
Because it’s built as a modular unit, the workstation is extremely
flexible. Should I replace any of my current tools, I simply can
change out one of the units and replace it with a new and correct-
ly proportioned carcase.
Well-organized storage
The bank of drawers on my chopsaw station provides more than
30 sq. ft. of storage space. I ordered premade metal drawers
(around $4 apiece) from Lee Valley (800-267-8735; www.leeval
ley.com). Installation was simple. All I had to do was build a box and
run sawkerfs every 11⁄4 in.; the 1-in. and 2-in.-deep drawers slide in-
to place and can be rearranged however I like. The drawer-box
carcase became the basis around which I built my chopsaw stand.
One of the best parts of working for this magazine is that I get to
visit the best workshops in the world, and the good ideas I see are
O N E TA B L E , M A N Y U S E S
The outfeed table not only provides support
for the tablesaw, but it also stores power
tools and other materials. The shop vacuum
can be used for dust collection at the
tablesaw. The 1-in.-thick MDF top also
serves as a sturdy work surface for
assembly. Lag bolts in the base make it
easy to level the table.
Condense workspaces. A router table that
mounts on the left side of the tablesaw saves
valuable floor space and still leaves plenty of
room for moving around.
TOOLS & SHOPS 2002 49
 Making it work. A well-
planned space—even if it’s
small—allows plenty of
room for building furniture.
Here, Teague works on a
set of cherry dining chairs.

key to working in any shop—I hate

floundering around a sloppy space
trying to locate a bit or a tool. And for
space reasons, organization is even
more important in a small shop. I
used watchmaker’s cases from Lee
Valley to hold screws and other hard-
ware (see the top right photo on
p. 46). With just a glance, I can find
what I’m looking for.

Where MDF falls short

abundant. While visiting Tony O’Malley, a woodworker in Em-
maus, Pa., I was struck by the efficiency and cleverness of his stor-
age space. He had built storage units all around the top of his shop
wall similar to the MDF units I had installed above my bandsaw,
jointer and chopsaw station.
I built them using an ultralight MDF rather
than the weightier MDF of my outfeed
table—the weight helps in that situation,
Watch it on the web
For a shop tour and more storage ideas,
but it isn’t necessary on the wall. The light
go to www.finewoodworking.com.
stuff is also much more pleasant to use. As
O’Malley did on his shelves, I ran dadoes in
the top and bottom to make the storage units adjustable and adapt-
able: By rearranging the 1⁄4-in.-thick dividers, I can design separate
cubbyholes for each tool.
Above both the chopsaw station and jointer, I screwed simple
plywood shelves to the wall. The shelves hold screws, router and
drill bits and help keep everything organized. Staying organized is
I was bent on using quick methods
and economical materials, but when it
came to my workbench, it was hard to
accept compromise. I recently inher-
ited an old workbench top from a
friend, who had inherited it from an-
other friend, who’d been given the
bench by a boatbuilding pal many
years ago. It is exactly the kind of
workbench that makes you want to
be a woodworker—an end vise, a
front vise, a tail vise and a heavy
maple top scarred with history. I built a maple base for it and in-
stalled the same drawer boxes I’d used on an earlier bench. I don’t
think I could sleep at night if I stored my favorite chisels and
planes in an MDF box above the bench. Instead, I made a simple
cherry wall unit with two box doors. I picked my favorite and most
necessary hand tools and outfitted the box
with custom tool holders. It was quick
work, but the unit serves all of my needs.
Though the garage required a fair amount
of renovation, the shop came together
quickly and works better than I ever would
have imagined. A good workshop should be simple and sensible
but designed with an eye toward efficiency. A sensible shop makes
you work better and smarter. The best part is that when I move,
the shop can be disassembled to move with me.

Matthew Teague is managing editor.

50 FINE WOODWORKING